Week 24: Are We There Yet?
Week 24: Are We There Yet? Unknown Autumn AS ???? When we left off... After enlisting a bird to scout the area, Nars learned a little more about the layout of the misty town and mysterious tower. However, nobody wanted to wait half a day for the bird to scout a full travel segment in all directions, so you didn't learn enough to tell you what direction you needed to travel. Ulfar, having paid attention for the last 3 years, happily pointed out that the Mists were nearly always described as Westward, and so suggested that you travel East. That was well and good, except that Nars was still doubly exhausted and Fabio the Camel was freaking out about carrying him. Realizing that Fabio was being put off his A-game by the definitely evil druid stick still in Ulfar's inventory, you decided to turn it over to Selgaard for a little Spell Forgery. Whatever that means. Sadly, Selgaard cannot pass a DC15 Int check, and so he just snapped the stick in half over his knee. It let out a majorly loud scream - I mean really, it could be heard from a pretty long ways away, and I wish I was making that up, but it's in the item description block. Gulthias Staff - easy to destroy, but noisy. So you all beat feet to the East, forgoing any attempt at gathering food as you went since that would just slow you down. About an hour out, the sharp eyes of the group spied a huge creature at the base of the mountain. And, whatever it was, it was definitely watching you! Nobody wanted to fight a d̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶ huge monster on the open plains, so you made for the distant tree line as fast as you could. Within the trees, you found an enormous lake and Clyde identified a decent escarpment where you could hide. The group made camp, careful to camoflauge their activities, and Nars and Clyde rustled up some grub nearby. Spoiler Warning: It's fish and berries for dinner. It's fish and berries every night. First Watch fell to Quintus, and with it fell the rain. The sound made it difficult to hear heavy footsteps and rustling underbrush, which somewhat explains how 3 Hill Giants got within striking distance of the camp before you spotted them. Quintus woke up Nars, who woke up Good Dog, who woke up Ulfar, who... well, I'm not sure anyone woke up Selgaard. But he sure as shit got himself up when the first rock tore through his tent and shattered on the ground next to him. Clyde took a serious beating from a lucky club-strike, and Ulfar managed to nab the killing blow on 2 of the 3 monsters. The one that was nominally the leader even discussed the possibility of sharing everyone's meat with Nars -- who can speak Giant, I guess -- in exchange for switching teams. Nars wasn't into sharing meat with big dudes, but quick action on his part did leave you with time to interrogate the leader a bit more after the battle was over. The HIll Giant revealed that there's very little to eat around here (as far as big game is concerned), and that there are Stone Giants to the East making things difficult. Further north of the Stone Giants, there are Frost Giants, and that was frankly terrifying to the shitty little Hill Giant at a shabby CR5. It also had a rudimentary document, which you guys figured out a way to read: the Stone Giant would accept the Hill Giants into its tribe / protection, in exchange for magical items and good meat. Sounded like a solid side-quest, but the moon was getting fuller and you were running out of time... TL;DR: Side Quests are for Nerds. Ulfar stabbed the GIant upon learning that it was evil, to the general chagrin of Nars, and nothing else was said on the matter. In the morning, you went East again, crossing through the forest until darkness and the encroaching Mist forced you to make camp. The night is still dark and full of terrors, in case anybody is wondering. Strahd appeared, draining the last of the Hill Giants tracking you, and then turned his dead and dashing eyes toward all of you. He moved unfathomably fast, charging down Sir Quintus who'd brazenly brandished a holy symbol... and smashing said holy symbol on the ground. That was... unexpected. More expected was the sudden arrival of World Leader Elrich Kessler, who nabbed Strahd and put him back where he belonged. Man, you guys really hate that guy. Not that anybody can blame you. Quintus' morale took a turn for the worse, and the next day's trek through the forest was maudlin at best. Nars tried to help by carving the old warrior a new holy symbol from dragon bone, and Clyde encouraged him to take First Watch... but he was just tired, dejected, and too emotional to hide his anger. Some little boys grow up to be Paladins. Even freakin' Selgaard's got the juice. But not Quintus. Oh no, never him. The new holy symbol did help, though. Eventually, after 2 days of moving East, you passed an obvious trail to the Stone Giant's lair and ignored it in favor of getting back to Ravenloft ASAP. Unfortunately, that day ended with the party penned in by ice on 3 sides. Nobody but Nars was confident in their ability to make it over the Frozen Wastes (if that is, indeed, where you are), and that ruled out any chance of getting to Madame Eva by the Full Moon in two days. Short of finding some kind of teleportation wizard and persuading him to help, you really couldn't have made it anyhow -- so, with the timer off the table and Hinklemar forgotten, you backtracked a full day's journey to go around the ice. Then everybody's least favorite side quest came to you! Well, one Stone Giant and one Hill Giant came, along with the moderately interesting bits of the loot list. You took them down without too much trouble, reminding the DM that 2 Hill Giants would have been more useful, and everybody nabbed something shiny. After attuning to your items, you had the unfortunate realization that not all magic items were created equal: poor Selgaard got stuck with a set of stripper armor, but at least it's full plate. Now the plan is to continue traveling with the ice to your left, which should bring you around to Soldier's Rest or somewhere near it in due course. Around Town... Nars seems to be making peace with his absent rage and realizing his potential as... whatever was inside him that's left. The full moon is tonight. Emo Quintus.